Is there anyone in Cornwall who might be able to do me a favour to save me some time?

I am travelling down to Cornwall on the train to collect a car which I have bought privately from someone in Newquay.

I can go all the way on the train, but it actually takes about an hour to get from Bodmin to Newquay, which is all of 20 miles. I want to get back on the road home asap since I will have a 250 mile drive and if I can save some time it would be really helpful.

Is there anyone who, without putting themselves out too much, could give me a lift from Bodmin station to Newquay at around 12:00 on Wednesday or Friday this week?

Humm - If it's 20 mile can't you get a cab? It'll probably cost about £30 which given the fuel any member would use won't be much more than you'd pay even for a lift.

Maybe - would be more like £40 though. Seems a lot after paying £54 to get from Banbury to Bodmin!

Quote:

Originally Posted by MEGA

Or else drive man! Is that hour worth £30 to you?

Don't understand that comment

Quote:

Originally Posted by MEGA

ps. What car???

Very boring I'm afraid. A replacement for my wife's 7 year old Touran - a 3 year old Touran!! Asking price was a good £3.5k less than comparbale cars.

Will probably end up getting the train all the way to Newquay as I suspect that it's putting someone out for a relatively small gain in time. I just thought I would ask in case someone was interested to help. If someone had a similar need in my area, or wanted me to check out a car for sale near me on their behalf, I would be only to happy to help without asking for anything (inc petrol money) in return. However I do understand that it's in working hours and some folk may not have the necessary flexibility.

Yeah, I recognise only 3 of the names. 2 of which are the most active posters on the list. 1 of which stopped posting on here a while ago and the other I've not seen post in ages although he is on BBMW quite a bit.

On my initial call I asked the seller for an honest appraisal of the car's condition, wheels, door dings etc. When he was a bit vague I asked him to go outside and check. He reported back that the only mark was a small 1" kerb mark on one wheel. I asked about options and whether or not the car had the "Park Assist" automatic parallel parking option fitted - he did not know.

It was such a good price I had to act very quickly and arranged that a friend of a mate would check the car out. He said it was all good except for an almost invisible door ding on the front passenger door. It's nearly 3 years old, but only done 20k miles so it's not going to be perfect so I accepted that it would be OK. However he also reported that on the way home the wife had badly kerbed another wheel.

So I tried to negotiate a bit of a reduction for that, but it was no go with the seller as he had had 6 calls that day for people willing to come down and buy it on the spot. So I agreed to buy it

So on collecting it:

They only had one key ready and could not find the other. It's been promised that if/when they find it they will send it to me.

The minor door ding stood out like a sore thumb to me - so why the seller had not commented on it I don't know. Anyway I think it can be addressed by dentmaster or someone. It's possible that most people would consider it inconsequential; after all it is not a new car.

There appeared to be quite a lot of point chips on the bonnet. However on closer inspection they seem to be dark green paint spots - they can be removed, so not a problem.

No car instruction manual and no service stamp book - however I had checked out service history with supplying dealer and all was in order there.

Nearside door mirror had a scrape exposing the black plastic underneath - about the size of a 5p piece. Smart repair will deal with that.

Stinks inside because some idiot has used shiny dash cleaning stinky chemicals - easy to deal with though

Front nearside bumper coner had a minor scrape on the plastic trim insert - again a smart repair will deal with it.

On seeing the bad kerbing that "the wife had done on the day my mate went to inspect the car" I can now actually see on the photo used to advertise the car. So I think the seller never checked the car over to give me an honest appraisal at all - liar.

They had forgotten to put the rear parcel shelf in the car - something I spotted as I was about the leave.

Rear offside tyre was nearly flat - on checking the tyres on the way home the highest pressure in the tyres was 1.6 bar when they should all have been 2.5 bar. The bad tyre had 0.6 bar in it.

As I went to leave I could not get the iPod connection to work with the stereo so I asked the wife if she could tell me - she said "Oh that's never really worked properly and can't operate whilst the sat nav is on. The sat nav isn't very good either".
So I called in at the supplying VW dealer on the way home. There I learnt that the car did have the parallel parking assist and that the reason that the iPod connection did not work was because they had the wrong cable! (They have had the car for nearly 3 years!).

So what amazes me is that people know so little about a car that they have had for 3 years and have not been properly honest with me. I guess we are not all car enthusiasts so perhaps I expect too much. Some of the details mentioned above may convey the impression that I am being a bit pedantic - perhaps that's true.

All of the above made me a bit grumpy on collection so I may have come across as a bit rude with them, especially over the missing key. I am always a bit like this and should behave myself - I think I set out with too high expectations, thinking that a car with only 20k miles is going to be almost perfect - when that's plainly unrealistic.

On the drive home the car was quieter and more economical that our existing one and it rolled less in the corners. The iPod music and the satnav operated without a hitch and I was quite impressed with it all. So I am actually very pleased with the car.

What's more a dealer has just posted an almost identical car for sale on Autotrader and they are asking £4.5k more for it than I paid (although their car has the DSG box).

A very long winded answer to a simple question, but in essence I am happy - it's just that the experience could have been so much better if the seller had known their arse from their elbow and been properly honest with me.

I should be pleased because I have gone from car with 68.5k miles to a car with 20k miles that is almost 4 years younger and with more spec for about a £5k cost to change. That equates to pretty cheap motoring in my view.

I am almost obsessive about our car keys. They are all hanging up on the key holder and I am forever seeing that my wife and daughter have not replaced the key to one of the cars and I have a go at them! They have probably left a key in a coat pocket on on the side, but it annoys me - I need to get a life! But then again, I would rather be like this than have to pay £200 for a replacement spare key come trade in.

as its a vag if you can find someone with rosstech vag.com they can delete the old key and codeup a new one, or an indie.

I had an inkling the old key could be disabled. However I don't know much about the process. Can you advise me (maybe via pm) on how to go about sourcing a new key as cost effectively as possible - I think a dealer will be a stealer in this instance.

With our first Touran (this is our third) my wife lost a key and the dealer took £110 off our trade in price. It turned up about a year later in the pocket of a long winter coat she uses only occasionally.

I recently sold a touran, it had the dsg box and I couldn't get on with it, forever changing gear and often in the wrong gear, quick though. However, I was so disinterested in the car (wife's chariot) that I was very embarrassed when I couldn't answer some very simple questions when someone came to view it - like when did you buy the car! To some, selling and buying a car is as uninteresting as going to tescos. i didn't even know if it had a spare wheel, and the sat nav was utter shite.

Test drove a touran not long ago as looked as an option for the wife. We both actually felt a little bit sick in the car when going down the road. I think just go to use to the harder rides in mine and her B-class with 18" wheels on.